House with Additional Beds and Bath Not On Tax Records

[Dom Allen]

Hello everyone,

I just came across a property in Richmond, VA that's listed in tax records as a 2 beds/1 bath with 900 sq ft. The house was built in 1955. A full dormer was added some years ago and the attic was converted to two additional bedrooms and a bath thus making the house 4 beds/2bath. The home inspector stated the original stairs leading up to the addition weren't wide enough and needed to be at least 36 inches wide and the steps needed to be at least 9 inches long and thus the addition wasn't up to code and wouldn't be considered as additional rooms and sq ft.

This was my first time hiring this particular inspector and this will be my first house with intensive repairs. In order to make this an attractive fix and flip I need the addition to qualify as square footage. Has anyone else experience a similar scenario? Any advice on how to move forward? I would like to know your thoughts.

[Jason Hirko]

@Dom Allen In my experiences, this varies so much from city to city and even from inspector to inspector. If you've already been told those things need to be changed, There's almost no way around it. I would find out if they would grandfather in the wiring/plumbing without making you open the walls, as that's going to be a lot more expensive than redoing a staircase.